Chatroulette Reaction

Chatroulette - > Looking for a random stranger... (Photo credit: Capt Kodak)

For the techno panics assignment, I chose to spend a few short minutes on Chatroulette. I’ve been on Chatroulette before—I think during my freshman year with a few friends from my dorm floor. Even then we couldn’t take Chatroulette seriously. I think we can all agree that Chatroulette is not about conversation as it was intended to be.

In the few minutes I was "chatting" I saw a variety of people--young, old, American, French, etc. However, I didn’t talk with these people, not because my connection was bad, but because I clicked the ‘next’ button each time I saw nudity. From the number of penises and other things I saw, I believe Chatroulette should have a disclaimer or require users to be 18 or older.

I can definitely understand why Chatroulette has the reputation it has, and I can understand why people are traumatized from experiencing Chatroulette, especially because I was traumatized myself. I will never go on Chatroulette again or anything remotely similar to Chatroulette. Chatroulette is not a positive internet experience.